About the new direction of GW2 / 2023 Q1 Roadmap [Merged]

[jamesg.7128]

36 minutes ago, lezbefriends.7516 said:

The sub comparison is fair. $30 every 6 months is pretty sub fee-ish.

Not fair at all.

In GW2 if you don't pay in 1 month or 6 months or 12 months or 18 months etc you can still play the game, ALWAYS, however much of it you have purchased so far.

With a sub, if you don't pay after just ONE month, you can't play anything at all. Ever. Until you start paying again.

[Kozumi.5816]

Exact same amount of content at the exact same pacing but this time you have to pay. That's what this roadmap told me.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Kozumi.5816

[Mardomus.6984]

Some people in here are weird man. You guys forget that there are people who live behind the development team who have to earn some sort of income to survive and continue to make content? You can choose to NOT buy the expansion if you don't want to pay for it or pay for it later when you have the funds to do so.

 

Players complain about content, which needs money to make, and when content can be consistent with the support of the player base, ya'll get mad? You want content for free? Ok and when the game can no longer support its servers or Devs due to the lack of funds then who faults does this ride on? The only questionable thing that you all should be talking about is the direction of said content with better management towards class balancing/fixing of core/specialization, with other cool Quality of Life things, and etc. 😬 

[Mistwraithe.3106]

Got to agree that there is a lot of complaining which seems to really boil down to wanting lots of content, great quality and for it to be free.

Life doesn't usually work that way. Good things usually take both time and effort. When the effort is being performed by someone else you usually have to pay them.

[lezbefriends.7516]

2 hours ago, jamesg.7128 said:

Not fair at all.

In GW2 if you don't pay in 1 month or 6 months or 12 months or 18 months etc you can still play the game, ALWAYS, however much of it you have purchased so far.

With a sub, if you don't pay after just ONE month, you can't play anything at all. Ever. Until you start paying again.

WoW is the only game that applies to. In FFXIV, you can play the base game without a sub. In ESO, the sub is optional, and the older content will still be playable.

Edited February 15, 2023 by lezbefriends.7516

[Randulf.7614]

41 minutes ago, lezbefriends.7516 said:

WoW is the only game that applies to. In FFXIV, you can play the base game without a sub. In ESO, the sub is optional, and the older content will still be playable.

And that sub presumably requires continually paying to maintain access to that newer content, whereas here it’s one and done for the expac. Like every expac gw2 has released so far. A sub is continuously renewing payment to, not a one off purchase.

This is not comparable to a sub. At all.

[lezbefriends.7516]

10 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

And that sub presumably requires continually paying to maintain access to that newer content, whereas here it’s one and done for the expac. Like every expac gw2 has released so far. A sub is continuously renewing payment to, not a one off purchase.

This is not comparable to a sub. At all.

Well yeah, since the focus is much heavier on the Gemstore/microtransactions than in sub games, they want you to keep logging in to check what's in the store.

[Serephen.3420]

12 hours ago, SnackParty.3178 said:

They are releasing smaller portions of content, more frequently, at lower cost than a full expansion. You're not obligated to buy them, to keep playing GW2.

That used to be called living world seasons and didn't cost a cent.

Expacs were their own thing. The way it looks is they have given up on expacs and are selling Living World instead. Which is a loss for us overall. 

It will have less content than we get from expansions. Maybe one nice thing is it can focus on smaller stories. But it's hard to say. New specs being unlikely is also a big risk because those are one of the biggest selling points of expacs. 

I want to try stay positive but the vibe feels completely different to their post eod announcement that they were working on the next expansion already. 

(Which I feel they now scrapped for this. At best cut up and divided to sell in parts labelled as mini expacs)

Edited February 15, 2023 by Serephen.3420
Typo

[Danikat.8537]

8 hours ago, Randulf.7614 said:

And that sub presumably requires continually paying to maintain access to that newer content, whereas here it’s one and done for the expac. Like every expac gw2 has released so far. A sub is continuously renewing payment to, not a one off purchase.

This is not comparable to a sub. At all.

I don't know anything about Final Fantasy but I play Elder Scrolls Online and to me this new system seems closer to playing ESO without subscribing.

They have expansion packs (called chapters) which everyone has to buy if they want to play them, and DLC which is either included in the subscription or sold separately for one-off payments. When a new chapter comes out the previous one is re-branded DLC and included in the subscription.

So subscribers will have access to everything except the newest chapter (and can get that too if they buy it) but only as long as they keep paying their subscription. If you haven't paid this month then no matter how much you've spent in the past you lose access to all the DLC and can only play the original base game and any chapters you've bought.

The alternative is to buy the DLC, then you have access to it forever with no on-going costs. And of course you can choose which ones to buy. I buy the story DLC but don't get the dungeons because they don't interest me enough. The only downside to doing that is sometimes they tie into the same storyline, but I can still play everything I've paid for even if I haven't bought the most recent DLC or chapter.

The important difference in how GW2 is going to do it is we're only going to be asked to pay for 1 release per year, not 4 like in ESO. If you buy the expansion pack you'll be able to play the 'DLC' releases when they come out for free.

And again if you choose not to buy the most recent expansion it won't affect anything you've already bought. You won't suddenly lose access to thinks in expansions you previously bought because you haven't "kept up your subscription" by getting the one one. The only thing you won't have access to is that expansion.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Danikat.8537

[fatihso.7258]

At this point, I am not going to pay a single penny if I don't see;

 

Alliances finally live,

New customization options added,

Actual rework and improvement of existing systems and UI/UX.

Actual care shown for wvw, pvp, fractals, raids and more.

 

All we keep hearing for YEARS is "everything is on the table" yeah for sure.

 

 

[Matt The Demon.6891]

23 hours ago, Justforvisit.3709 said:

"Rather than launching an expansion every two to four years with a season of Living World in between, we’ll be releasing smaller expansions more frequently at a slightly reduced price"

So, you're telling me that after 10 years you guys found a clever and sleazy way to transform this game into subscription based through the backdoor, just not calling it by this name?

This rings especially sour when you consider you made all these too-good-to-be-true-sounding promises over and over again over the course of the last 10 years. And if it stays like that, it's absolute NOT worth paying for it.

Alliances? When?
Better handling of PvP and WvW. When?
An Icebrood Saga Ending that doesn't depend on repeating the same old and just slightly changed maps 10 (!!!) times in a row. When? (WHOOPS, TOO LATE)
A fully fledged out 2023 roadmap as it has been the case with previous years? When?
Returning to old quality standards? When?

Come on, just be honest and tell us that you cannot afford to provide this game for free to us players anymore, and in this times it's very understandable.

Just don't lie us in the face about it.

You realize expansions have never been free right? LWS for free isn't a great model to begin with, and making it part of the expansion for a single price is much better.  On top of that, how does paying for an expansion equate to a monthly sub? Spoiler: It Doesn't. Also, seems like you missed the massive leadership changes over the past decade. They're gonna need TIME to show us their words have meaning, complaining about Y because X screwed it up is pointless and unproductive. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Matt The Demon.6891
Spelling/Grammar

[Bast.7253]

18 hours ago, Mardomus.6984 said:

Some people in here are weird man. You guys forget that there are people who live behind the development team who have to earn some sort of income to survive and continue to make content? You can choose to NOT buy the expansion if you don't want to pay for it or pay for it later when you have the funds to do so.

 

Players complain about content, which needs money to make, and when content can be consistent with the support of the player base, ya'll get mad? You want content for free? Ok and when the game can no longer support its servers or Devs due to the lack of funds then who faults does this ride on? The only questionable thing that you all should be talking about is the direction of said content with better management towards class balancing/fixing of core/specialization, with other cool Quality of Life things, and etc. 😬 

Are those people behind the development team seeing pay increases though?

 

Or is it just the usual higher ups and profits funding the new IP?

[Sobx.1758]

1 minute ago, Bast.7253 said:

Are those people behind the development team seeing pay increases though?

 

Or is it just the usual higher ups and profits funding the new IP?

Irrelevant, the product needs to be profitable for the company in order to keep being developed so the development team can keep being hired and subsequently paid for their work. The question about "who's seeing pay increases though?!" has nothing to do with what you've quoted since he wasn't talking about pay increase, he was talking about people behind the product being paid.

[Obtena.7952]

LAWL at anyone saying they didn't pay for LS content ... you absolutely did. 

[Nidome.1365]

Personally I would rather that they put all further content on hold and instead fix all of the bugs, exploits and hacks that have existed for years.

Sort out the foundations before building more extensions please.

[Gibson.4036]

7 hours ago, Matt The Demon.6891 said:

You realize expansions have never been free right? LWS for free isn't a great model to begin with, and making it part of the expansion for a single price is much better.  On top of that, how does paying for an expansion equate to a monthly sub? Spoiler: It Doesn't. Also, seems like you missed the massive leadership changes over the past decade. They're gonna need TIME to show us their words have meaning, complaining about Y because X screwed it up is pointless and unproductive. 

LW wasn’t free either. It was included in the cost of the previous expansion, but only if you logged in when it was released.

All the changes mean is that you won’t have to log in during that window to claim it, and there will be less content per more frequent expansion. Hence the “slightly reduced” cost.

[Aelin.9317]

I've come to the conclusion some people are determined to be negative. 

I am hopeful the content changes their minds 🙂 

[Serephen.3420]

9 minutes ago, Aelin.9317 said:

I've come to the conclusion some people are determined to be negative. 

I am hopeful the content changes their minds 🙂 

I hope it will.

[Obtena.7952]

On 2/14/2023 at 7:07 PM, Kozumi.5816 said:

Exact same amount of content at the exact same pacing but this time you have to pay. That's what this roadmap told me.

Except you always paid. You just don't understand how. 

[Linken.6345]

17 minutes ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Except you always paid. You just don't understand how. 

If they offer 2-3 years of content with equal quality and size as past expansions ( EoD was kinda rushed) for 30 bucks I dont think anyone will complain.

And if that have to be spread on 3 mini expansions for 10 bucks each over those 3 years so be it.

Edit

what people are worried about tho is it will be half the content spread over 3 years and 3 mini expansions costing 25 bucks each at total of 75 dollars.

So in short we get half of what we pay for in the past for dubble the price and no idea if what we pay for at the start is anything we like in the end of each expansion.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Linken.6345

[Obtena.7952]

3 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

If they offer 2-3 years of content with equal quality and size as past expansions ( EoD was kinda rushed) for 30 bucks I dont think anyone will complain.

And if that have to be spread on 3 mini expansions for 10 bucks each over those 3 years so be it.

I think you better set your expectations better. Consider the price of a skin for anything ... then rethink your $10 estimates. 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Obtena.7952

[Linken.6345]

1 minute ago, Obtena.7952 said:

I think you better set your expectations better. Consider the price of a skin for anything ... then rethink your $10 estimates. 

Well that is what we paid for living story in the past we paid 30 bucks for pof and got access to living story season 4 maps aslong as we had login when they released.

You  did say we always payed and that is true but we knew in advance what we paid for the living world was just the sherry on top.

This we we will know at most 66% up front and the last 33% we will get 3-6 months later.

[Doctor Hide.6345]

     Most of my issues with it have already been talked about from others who don't like this change of direction. I just came here to comment on some of the comments made that the devs need to eat blah, blah, blah ones. The cash shop exists for a reason and has been doing quite well. If you even looked at the quarterly report, you would see the game is doing quite well based on sales alone from the Expansion and gem store. 

     They didn't need to do this route. They choose it just to get more money from the players. That is all the reason to it. The game store was/is  doing fine for their needs, but I guess that is not enough anymore for them.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Doctor Hide.6345

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

I'm curious to see if these smaller scale expansions are going to be full on stand-alone expansions. What will they bring to the table other than elite specs, which is the main reason for selling expansions at all?

[Linken.6345]

9 minutes ago, Eloc Freidon.5692 said:

I'm curious to see if these smaller scale expansions are going to be full on stand-alone expansions. What will they bring to the table other than elite specs, which is the main reason for selling expansions at all?

It wont be they already told us it will be 2 maps at launch instead of 4 with 1 added later instead of 2-6.

1 fractal and 2 strikes with cms added later.

So I guess the only new thing is we will start getting fractals again.